Takin' it to the Streets

GCATT helps telecom innovators turn ideas into business

By Shelley Hughes

Already widely known for its collaborative, cutting-edge research and development in telecom technology, The Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology (GCATT) also provides a lesser-known service bringing that new technology to the world.

"Our goal is to fill our incubator with companies that come out of our research labs. We want to complete the life cycle, create embriotic ideas, nuture them, and then send them out to the world," says J. Michael Cummins (right), director and chief executive officer of GCATT.

GCATT's major activities include promoting public policies that advance development of information-industry companies, technologies and services; linking Georgia's research universities through collaborative programs; and developing research and commercialization partnerships.

World-class scholars at leading Georgia universities create new knowledge, and GCATT helps transform that new knowledge into industry growth.

GCATT works to commercialize innovations in four ways:

• Accelerating the introduction of technologies to the marketplace. By linking research expertise with business experience, GCATT stimulates the development of high-impact start-up companies.
• Helping entrepreneurs bridge the gap between a business idea and reality. The Linking Investors to Georgia High Technology (LIGHT) series offers informative networking opportunities for interested parties from academia, corporate start-ups and the financial world.
• Supporting high-tech start-up companies. GCATT includes an entrepreneurial-venture incubator that provides business assistance to start-ups. The close proximity of start-up companies and research scientists in GCATT stimulates collaboration, enhancing the performance of both entities. And GCATT helps start-ups find the right business connections.
• Developing research and commercialization partnerships with established information-industry companies. Lucent Technologies, BellSouth, Hitachi and other industry leaders leverage research capabilities at GCATT.

The Midwife Role

Companies not only use the transferred technologies to enhance their growth, but also benefit from updates on new technologies and opportunities to get involved in emerging companies. The Technology Development Partnership offers grant funding for joint corporate-university research. The result is a fountain of technical innovation that becomes a powerful stimulus for high-tech job growth in Georgia.

"There is stiff competition for venture capital in today's market," Cummins says. "To successfully compete for dollars, we need to look to untapped opportunities. Very few incubators play the midwife role, and this just might be the wave of the future. We need to find technologies that haven't been turned into companies yet and then commercialize them."

An example of a new technology is the haptic lens. Made of a malleable clay-like substance, it could be used by physicians to detect cysts. Shoe manufacturers could use it as a fitting tool, or automobile manufacturers could use it in vehicle design.

"The haptic lens has many applications that have real potential," Cummins says. "It is our job to determine what is the most viable option. To do this we need to gain better knowledge about the marketplace, further develop the technology, analyze the marketplace, develop a business plan and find an entrepreneur to run the company."

Telecommunications, computing, cable TV and consumer electronics are merging into a new and exciting industry. By bringing together researchers, corporate developers and entrepreneurs, GCATT plans to be at the center of this activity. GT

Shelley Hughes is a writer in Georgia Tech's Office of Communications and Public Affairs.

J. Michael Cummins, director and CEO of GCATT.